Another beautiful Fall!

We are more than 2/3 of the way through October, yikes! What has the month been like for us . . .nothing really big has been happening. I finished my banister project at the end of September but only got the after picture after my last blog post. We watched some hockey, had a great Canadian Thanksgiving dinner at our house with the Daveys and the Vanees. I love that we get to celebrate with such great friends every year! About a week and a half ago Adam started having a lot of trouble with his teeth. He was in a lot of pain and we couldn't figure out why - just that he said his teeth hurt. All I was thinking was how can he have another cavity already?? He took a lot of Ibuprofen which seemed to help, and it looks like it was NOT a cavity (thank goodness!) but just a few loose molars. He has been losing teeth ahead of schedule so these are teeth that Lynsey still has, but apparently them loosening has been giving him a lot of grief! The pain was the worst for the first 2 or 3 days and then started subsiding thankfully. Unfortunately all the Ibuprofen he took caused him to become constipated and his bed-wetting has resumed after getting much better over the last several months. He was dry last night (I woke him at 11 and took him to the bathroom) but before last night, he peed the bed 4 of the last 5 nights. Not good. I am confident that constipation is the main cause of this so we are working on sorting that out for him.

November is coming up and it is going to be a crazy busy month. Lynsey is having a birthday sleepover on Saturday the 4th, and then on the 5th Brian is leaving on a 10 day work trip to Indonesia. Pray for me! He gets back on Wednesday the 15th and the next day (Thursday evening) I am going to Las Vegas with some friends until Sunday - girls trip! Then on Tuesday, Brian's parents are coming. They will spend American Thanksgiving with us and then the following Monday . . . Brian and I are off to Costa Rica!! I can't believe it's that close, it was so abstract for so long! I feel nervous about it but I am so ready. I know the kids will be fine with Grandma and Grandpa, I just keep thinking of Adam's bed wetting and even just how hard things got for him with his loose teeth . . .hopefully everything goes smoothly while we're gone!

School routines, home projects, etc.

October already! We are settling into our regular fall routine. We had some great weather last week and even had to pull out the shorts and tank tops again! Didn't last but it was a nice last gasp:-). The last few weeks we've launched some model rockets, had some date nights, saw Brian's aunt Stella who was on town, and yesterday went to Stocker Farms for the Facebook family party. It was a great time! Much better than our pumpkin patch visit last year, so much less crowded! Facebook did really well with this event, we had a great time. Oh I can't forget to mention my project for the past week - staining our banister! Stay tuned for pictures, still have to do one coat of poly so can't post the "after" pictures just yet!

Adam has been very observant looking out the window as we are driving lately. He points out everything he sees: "Oh there's a church!" "Oh there's a park!" "That's a blue house!" I wonder if for all these years he's just been looking out the window and not really noticed what was passing him by, and now he's noticing? It's interesting! Nothing else really new with the kids, Lynsey is having some trouble adjusting to all the homework she's getting but we are figuring it out. I just hate that Elementary School students get homework, even Nathan has been coming home with some homework sheets! I am letting him do them as long as he thinks they are fun but I will not pressure him to do them. Ugh, the joys of having to confront teachers that have different philosophies:-/.

Fall is officially here!

We are getting back into the swing of the Fall routine! We had a really warm Labor Day so we went to Vasa Park for the day with the Daveys, one last gasp of summer fun! Adam desperately wanted to try the water slides, but he either had to pass a swim test (which he's not able to do) or wear a life jacket out there to the floating dock. He finally put the life jacket on and doggy paddled to the floating dock, but then he didn't want to actually go down the slide. He stood there at the top of the slide for so long, I was cheering him on from the land dock! Finally I convinced Lynsey (who had already dried off) to go back out there to help convince him, and then Brian finally got in. Having Dad out there was the final push he needed! I was so happy for him that he finally went down the slide, he went several times after that yet. It's interesting how it just takes him a lot longer to get to the point of doing some of these things, but once he's there, he's just like any other other kid:-). 

School started without too much fanfare, Adam seemed okay with the return of the school routine (and even rolled really well with walking to school on the first day because the bus was super late!). Nathan started this past Monday and has done really well this week as well - not much adjustment needed at all to be used to full days at school. I am enjoying some peace and quiet at home, and being able to get stuff done with no interruption. It's so nice to be able to do one drop off at 8:30 and then be free - even just not having that 9am dropoff in Kirkland makes so much different to how spacious my morning feels! I did have to deal with a bit of an issue with Adam's home program this week, but I think it's getting sorted out. They have a limit to how many sessions you can cancel for vacations etc. before they start making you pay for the aides time, which I am understanding of, but they were a bit draconian in the implementation of it which caused me to be a bit upset. I had hoped for some more understanding and flexibility. Thankfully they did listen and re-evaluate when I expressed my concerns so I'm hopeful we can work out a reasonable solution. Just another thing to deal with, again making us wish we just didn't have to deal with additional therapies. How simple life would be if we could just send him to school and know he was getting everything he needed there! Such is life. 

Family Pics 2017 - Lulubird Photography